Havensworth
by parttimeficwriter
Summary: What I would have liked to see happen during 5:4.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: I stil don't own Ruth and Harry or anything else Spooks related. I'm actually quite depressed about it.**

**Dedication: Many happy returns Helen, this fic is just for you.

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The first thing that Ruth noticed, as she walked into the reception area, was Harry walking towards her. Her stomach lurched in a way that was fast becoming familiar when she was around him. If anything, her stomach fluttering and heart rate had increased ten fold since their one and only date. She had been hoping that there was a chance of avoiding him during the operation but it was painfully obvious that that particular wish was going to go unanswered. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to see him, more that she had no idea what to say to him or how to act around him now. They were awkward and skittish around each other, and she was constantly reminded of how she felt when she was a teenager and had had a crush on the head boy. That hadn't ended well either, although she admitted that it had more to do with seeing him kissing her best friend rather than her own insecurities.

She suddenly realised that she had stopped walking and that Harry was fast approaching her. She fiddled momentarily with the strap on her handbag as he stood in front of her.

"Hello I'm glad you're here. I need your organisational skills on this operation. I've got your pass."

Ruth couldn't help but smile inwardly at his words. That he was glad she had arrived made her want to dance and clap. Deciding that would not only make her look stupid but also draw unwarranted attention to them both, she settled instead on watching him as he fumbled in his pocket for her security pass.

"Um, do I need to organise a room?"

He looked slightly startled at the question and she wondered what was going through his mind.

"No. It's all arranged. Your room. It's not your own room...Um, there weren't any left so you have to share with...er, well, me. Not, in a r-romantic way obviously, I'm just saying that you can use it to rest in."

Harry's words were cut off by the sound of his mobile phone ringing. He was secretly relieved to have a get out clause, fully aware that any discussion of him and Ruth sharing a hotel room could lead to an extremely awkward and embarrassing conversation.

"Right." Quite possibly not the most intelligent thing to say in response to his hurried ramblings but she didn't exactly trust herself to say anything further on the topic.

"I have to take this...do you want to..." Harry gestured in the direction of the rooms.

"Yeah," she hurriedly accepted and hastily set off to find the operation control room.

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It had been a long day so far and, as far as Ruth could tell, it was going to be an even longer night. She had managed to avoid going anywhere near the room that Harry was using, preferring instead to bury herself in her work. It was a tactic that had worked well during the day but as the evening drew on and the hours passed it was becoming much harder for her to use work as an excuse.

Ruth tried to look busy as she heard the door open, knowing instinctively that it would be Harry.

"Ruth, I think you've worked late enough."

"I'm just finishing one or two things off Harry, I'm fine."

"What are you finishing off?" he asked as he moved closer to her. There was a slightly dangerous edge to his voice and she knew that he didn't believe her.

"Just some research for Ros. Having read all I can about ice hockey I'm still not sure I understand the attraction."

He smiled weakly at her comment and steeled himself to bring the subject of the room up.

"I thought you might be hiding. From me. Well, not _me_ as such. From sharing the room...not that we're sharing in anything other than a professional capacity," he stalled and cursed himself for his sudden inability to articulate himself around her. "You should come and get some rest."

Ruth quashed her initial impulse to defiantly state that she didn't need to rest; in truth she was shattered and her eyes felt gritty from staring at the computer screen for so long. She was fully aware, however, that the chances of relaxing or getting any rest when she would be in such close proximity to him were virtually non-existent.

Switching the computer off, she followed him out of the command centre. They stood in the lift, an awkward silence enveloping them, as it carried them to their floor. Harry fumbled with the key card before finally getting the door open. He stood back to allow Ruth to enter the room first, almost walking into her as she hesitated just across the threshold.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"No, my fault," Harry smiled hesitantly at her.

They stood looking at one another until Ruth's gaze shifted towards the bed - the only bed in the room - a double bed. Harry watched the expression on her face, trying to read her thoughts. Following the direction her eyes were looking in, he realised what was going through her mind.

"Er, you can have the bed; I'll use the sofa."

"Right." It seemed to be the only word she was capable of uttering.

Unsure what to do next, Harry decided that alcohol might be a good remedy. "Would you like a drink?"

"Um, yes, thank you." She watched Harry walk carefully across the room; her brow furrowed, "are you OK?"

"Hmmm?"

"It's just you seem to be er,…" she hesitated, 'walking funny' would sound insulting; "well, having trouble with your feet." She stifled the hysterical laughter rising in her throat. It was a bizarre thing to say to her boss.

"Ah, new shoes; they've given me blisters." He looked slightly bashful and Ruth felt her heart lurch at the adorable expression on his face.

"Then you should take them off."

"No, it's fine."

"No it isn't; sit down." She pointed at the sofa.

Harry felt slightly shocked at her forceful tone but did as he was told; he was even more shocked when Ruth sat herself down beside him…She leant forward, reached down and grabbed his leg, pulling it roughly onto her knee and starting to untie the laces. Harry watched her as she concentrated on the task in front of her and couldn't help but smile at her persistence. Despite his initial protests, he had to admit that wearing new shoes on the first day of an operation was not one of his better ideas. It felt strangely intimate that she would take his shoes off for him and he was suddenly aware that they were alone in a hotel room together. Deciding to annoy her, he tried to remove his foot from her lap, only for her to clamp her arm around over his calf whilst she tugged on the stubborn leather shoe.

"You're going to take them off whether you like it or not Harry," she told him as she eased his right foot out of the shoe. "You should put something more comfortable on."

Smirking at her as she placed his leg back on the floor and reached for the other one, he spoke softly "Miss Evershed, are you trying to seduce me?"

Harry thoroughly enjoyed watching the blush that swept over her features; he loved it when she was all flustered: especially when he was the cause of it. Clearing her throat, she elected to focus her attentions back on the shoelaces in her hands rather than on his face, knowing with some certainty that the look in his eyes would make her blush even more.

"Yes Harry. I always seduce unwitting men by luring them into a hotel room and removing their shoes for them," she muttered as she pulled at the laces forcefully. She heard him chuckle and the throaty sound of it made her stomach somersault.

"I thought as much." There was a hint of amusement in his sultry voice as he addressed her. "My mother warned me about girls like you, you know?"

Unable to resist much longer she raised her eyes to his questioningly "Did she?"

"Oh yes. She was a very wise woman you know."

"I don't doubt it. I'll try and restrain myself Harry, you have my word"

"More's the pity," he murmured before getting up and pouring them both another drink.

He was so close to her as he leant down and placed the glass on the table in front of her; she could feel the warmth radiating from his body from where she sat. She could feel his hot breath as it washed over her ear. Closing her eyes and swallowing hard, she willed herself not to react to his proximity. Her head turned to the side and before she knew what she was doing her lips were brushing against his mouth softly. He tasted deliciously sweet to her and, without thought, her tongue moved lightly over the swell of his bottom lip. He began to move his lips against hers, letting them overlap in small, sensual kisses. The shrill sound of the telephone cut through their passion filled minds and reluctantly he parted from her. Snatching his mobile up from the small table he growled into it, more than a little annoyed at the intrusion.

She sat frozen in place as he paced the room and had a heated debate with the caller. She berated herself for her lack of self–control. _What the hell was she doing?_ He was her boss. She had just kissed her boss. The fact that she was in love with him didn't really matter. They were at work for God's sake; it was bad enough that people were already speculating about them. Sharing a hotel room was not the best of ideas to stem the flow of office gossip. She needed to get out of there, before she lost it completely and pinned him to the mattress.

She stood hastily as Harry finished on the phone and turned to face her.

"I, uh, I should go and check on things," she muttered, her gaze straying momentarily from the floor to his face, before rapidly returning to the floor as she saw the hurt flicker across his features.

"Ruth..." he started but she was at the door and he knew she was going to walk away from him again.

She spared a small glance over her shoulder at him before scurrying out of the room and heading for the command centre. Thoroughly dejected and confused, Harry stood staring at the door long after she had left.


	2. Chapter 2

**Unfortunately, despite asking, I still don't own anything. I'm just messing with them...I think they have more fun in my world anyway...**

**Thanks Em x

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Eventually, he had accepted that she wasn't going to stroll back through the door anytime soon and had collected the bottle of whiskey and a tumbler and slumped back into his chair. He wasn't overly sure what the hell had just happened. That she had kissed him, that much he knew. The small kiss had done more to stir his passions than anything had done in a long time. The way her mouth had felt pressed against his and the smallest sweep of her tongue against his lip had left him breathless. She had felt it too, he was sure of it; yet she had bolted at the first opportunity, no explanation, nothing. Sighing heavily and trying not to replay the kiss over and over, he sipped his drink slowly, the deafening silence of the room suiting his suddenly morose mood.

Ruth rubbed her hands wearily across her face as she tried hard not to think about Harry. The room she was in offered her little distraction from her thoughts. Most of the delegation seemed to have gone to their rooms now due to the lateness of the hour. She wondered what he was doing and immediately chastised herself for it. The thought of him alone and miserable was not something she could bear. She knew she owed him an apology; it wasn't fair of her to kiss him like that; not when she had denied him a personal relationship. Sighing loudly and muttering to herself about there being no time like the present, she walked out of the room.

The dull thud of the music was starting to grate on his nerves. He wanted peace and he wanted quiet. He didn't want to be tapping his fingers in time to the beat of whatever God awful excuse for music was blaring out of a nearby room. Setting his whiskey down on the table, he followed through on his impulse to see where the noise was coming from and, more importantly, a way of getting it to stop. It seemed to be coming from the room at the other end of the corridor and he took a couple of steps towards it before stopping dead as Ruth appeared at the far end of the hallway.

"Did the noise wake you? I've never really gone in for Euro pop"

She tried not to cringe at her words; she sounded ridiculous to her own ears but she was more than a little thrown at having walked around the corner, still rehearsing her speech to him in her head, to see him stood there. He looked a little weary and slightly surprised at her sudden appearance in the small space.

_God, he looked sexy_. She tried to keep her gaze on the carpet as much as she could because with his rumpled shirt open at the neck and his slightly dishevelled appearance he had never looked better to her. There was a sudden impulse to open the rest of the shirt buttons for him and let her hands wander his chest, but she shook her head to clear that thought, choosing instead to look up from the floor. It was almost certainly a mistake; the look in his eyes was one she had never seen before on him and it made her heart stop momentarily before thudding back into action at an incredibly fast and alarmingly loud rate.

"I wasn't sleeping at all."

Her mouth was suddenly dry and all her well thought out phrases escaped her. She was left breathless and fumbling for something to say; never a good practice in her experience, because she almost always began to babble.

"It's the Italian Trade Minister, apparently a bit of a party animal. Caused a scandal at an E.U. conference last year by insisting on dancing to the Macerana at the last night banquet."

She braved another look at him and her stomach flipped. His gaze was so intense. She could practically feel the heat of it as his eyes moved over her body. She wanted to close the distance between them so badly, and had to use every last drop of self-control she had to utter her next words.

"I'll, uh, I'll get the manager to turn it down."

The disappointment in his eyes was crushing; she hated seeing him look so sad, defeated even. His warm chocolate eyes kept her where she was, despite her intentions to leave him again. The internal voice that usually voiced reason and caution seemed to be being drowned out by another that was screaming at her to grab him and kiss him. She couldn't get the feel of his lips brushing against hers from her mind; it was stuck on a repeated loop in her head. How was she supposed to turn and leave when she knew how he tasted? When she had felt his tongue brush lightly against her own and wanted nothing more than to feel it again?

"Ruth"

That was all it took. The sensual murmur of her name and she was lost. Totally and completely. She had no strength left to fight any more and, if she was honest, she didn't know if she wanted to fight it any longer. She had closed the distance between them without being aware that she had moved. Her hands seemed to have taken on a life of their own as they smoothed against the cotton of his shirt and she could feel his heart beating, smiling as she realised his heart rate closely matched her own.

Not a word was spoken, the only sounds she could hear were their ragged breathing and the pounding beat of the music in the background. Her arms twined around his neck and she gave in to the irresistible notion of kissing him. Their earlier kiss in the room had been tentative and incredibly sweet; enough to leave her longing for more, but this kiss was nothing like that one. It was fiery and passionate. Their hot mouths pressed together, lips repeatedly slanting over one another, tongues stroking against each other, building them both higher and higher as they lost themselves completely in the taste of one another.

Harry was vaguely aware of his back hitting the doorframe as he tried to manoeuvre them both down the hallway and to the room, all the while keeping his mouth firmly attached to hers. She was intoxicating. She assaulted all of his senses and he was eager to get her alone and continue his exploration of her mouth. He couldn't remember kissing like this before; not with such passion and feeling behind it. He could taste her need for him and it only served to heighten his excitement.

He managed to collect his thoughts long enough to realise that he needed to open the door and reached a fumbling hand behind him. She smiled against his mouth as she reached a hand around his body to help. It opened suddenly, causing them both to stumble slightly and part briefly. A breathless laugh escaped her throat as he simultaneously pulled her into the room, shut the door with his foot and pinned her against the cold wood.

One hand rested against the door at the side of her whilst his left hand moved to her neck and into her hair as his lips met hers in a deliciously unhurried kiss. The underlying passion was still there but this was something different, a soft sensual exploration of her mouth. It was a kiss to show her how he felt and by the time he was finished and had pulled away to look at her, she could barely remember her own name.

"I've wanted to do that for the longest time." His voice was roughened by passion as he spoke, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"To kiss me?" She looked at him from beneath her lashes, a soft smile playing at her mouth, making her dimples more prominent.

"Yes and to pin you to my bedroom door!" His words made her blush lightly as he had known they would and he took great pleasure in keeping her where she was before moving back in to kiss her soft, plump lips once more.

He kept the kiss brief, knowing full well that, if he gave in to the temptation to kiss her as he had done in the hallway, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. As much as he wanted to undress her right now - to slowly peel her clothing away from her tempting curves and undoubtedly smooth skin and explore her body with his mouth and hands - he knew it was too much, too soon. The last thing he wanted was to scare her off again.

He moved so that his head rested against hers, and gazed down at her, watching in fascination as her lashes fluttered open and she smiled at him quickly before she spoke.

"Harry, about before…" His finger coming to rest against her lips stopped her from saying any more.

"You don't need to explain. Just tell me that you're not leaving, that's all I need to know."

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

"Good. Come sit with me."

He led them both over to the sofa, pulling her down beside him, smiling at her as he slid his arm around her shoulders and she automatically snuggled into his side. He was content to sit and listen to her breathe as he ran his fingers lightly through her hair. The dull thump of the terrible music was still present but Harry couldn't care less about it now, everything he cared about was currently nestled against him, running her right had absentmindedly over his stomach and up his chest.

"What happens now Harry?"

"Well, we can either try to get some sleep or we can just sit and talk for a while."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," she admonished lightly. "Although the talking does sound nice."

"Talking it is then." Leaning down he pressed his lips to her forehead and kissed her sweetly. "As for what happens, we take things slowly; get to know one another on a personal level and tell anyone who asks that it's none of their damn business."

"I think I can do that," she answered honestly as a small smile played about her lips. "Tell me about the Grand Tour again."

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**Reviews make me smile...**

**I'm not sure if this is where it ends or if I should write more, so I'll leave it up to you to decide!**


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